Gene Drive Breakthrough: Caution Urged over Editing DNA in Wildlife
Caution is being urged when it comes to the topic of editing DNA in wildlife. Rapid alteration of gene pools could fight disease and harm ecosystems.
On July 30, the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) held the first in a series of meetings meant to find ways to balance the promise and perils of the technique, called ‘gene drive.’ The method can rapidly modify not just a single organism but a whole population, by inserting a desired genetic modification into an organism along with DNA that increases the rate at which the change is passed to the next generation. The technique could be used to render mosquitoes unable to carry malaria parasites or to wipe out harmful invasive species, but it could also have unanticipated environmental costs and might be impossible to reverse. “Once this is out there, you cannot call it back,” says Walter Tabachnick, a population geneticist at the University of Florida in Vero Beach.
The idea of gene drive has been around for more than a decade. But its practicality was given a huge boost around three years ago with the arrival of CRISPR, a gene-editing technique that allows precise changes to an organism’s DNA.
Read the article “Gene Drive Breakthrough: Caution Urged over Editing DNA in Wildlife” on scientificamerican.com.
